Revolution in the Ninja World

Habara lay in the mud, and even though he was covered in muddy water, it couldn't stop the heat radiating from his body. No one knew how well-done his right arm was.

The intense impact almost knocked Habara unconscious. The burning sensation from the flames amplified his sense of pain to the extreme. After instinctively struggling for a bit, he finally managed to prop himself up.

As if through a curtain of water, the surrounding sounds of rain, fighting, and shouting reached Habara's ears in an incredibly distorted way... Who am I, where am I, what exactly happened?

Okay, it wasn't that dramatic. Habara was just a little confused as to why the enemy had launched a suicide attack without hesitation, and why the target of the attack was him.

The battle had only just begun. Why would a perfectly fine person just blow himself up? Even ninjas shouldn't disregard their own lives to this extent, should they?

However, the enemy hadn't just randomly chosen someone to perform a "mutual destruction technique" on. Judging from the combat power Habara had displayed since the beginning of the battle, the enemy judged that a one-for-one trade with him was worth it.

The enemy considered Habara a strong opponent.

This battle situation was quite similar to when Habara first stepped onto the battlefield. The absurd part was that this time, Habara and the others were in the position of the "Cloud's powerful enemies," while the Amegakure ninjas were more like "Z Squad."

For the weak to challenge the strong, they inevitably had to make sacrifices beyond imagination. Every Amegakure ninja who went to the battlefield was prepared to die, and since they could accept the fact of death, they wouldn't hesitate to choose the path leading to it.

Of course, such Amegakure ninjas could be said to have incredibly strong wills, or they could be said to have been maliciously brainwashed... Regardless, the world was what it was.

"Hiss..."

Habara exhaled a long breath, then took a deep breath and held it. Iron barriers gradually covered his right arm, replacing the severely burned skin to protect his body tissues.

The enemy who attacked him naturally had a worse outcome. In a spiritual sense, that person could be called heroic, but in a real sense, he had just become a pile of Indian curry.

The explosion of dozens of detonating tags detonating together hadn't killed Habara, which was somewhat unexpected. But when the sole remaining enemy of that four-man squad noticed Habara getting up from the mud, he immediately launched another attack.

As the enemy quickly flipped his wrists and then stopped, a huge fireball flew straight towards Habara.

Currently, Habara wasn't actually good at dealing with area-of-effect skills like Fire Release. But the next moment, his figure disappeared from his original spot. The curtain of rain was split vertically in a straight line, and the burning fireball was cut in half horizontally. The sound of rushing wind began, and the sound of rushing wind stopped. Then the enemy discovered that a silver longsword had already pierced his heart.

A bone-chilling coldness spread from his chest. With almost no pain, his bodily functions ceased.

"I admire your courage in resisting the enemy. I don't understand the meaning of this war, but I at least understand that the powerful nations' undisguised aggression against the small nations is wrong. However... I'm sorry, I don't intend to die here."

Habara dispelled the silver sword in his hand, and then two bow arms extended from his left wrist. He then straightened his arm, and the string of that bow automatically drew back. A black "ribbon" extended from behind him, and its front end attached to the bow, instantly forming an iron arrow... Even without using either of his hands, he could complete the action of drawing the bow.

He climbed to a higher position and began to support his other teammates.

"Retreat! Don't stop, retreat through the gap Habara opened!"

Izayo instantly grasped the changes in the battlefield situation and shouted orders to her subordinates.

By now, the number of Amegakure ninjas who had arrived far exceeded the number of Konoha ninjas. Stopping to fight at this point was meaningless; it was tantamount to slow suicide.

Running was the only way to have a sliver of hope.

Izayo's order naturally had a positive effect, but it also meant she revealed her identity to the enemy. Consequently, most of the enemies immediately charged towards her.

Faced with that number of enemies, Habara's one-arrow-at-a-time support was largely meaningless, so he could only throw out another "Mercury Lamp"... Now was not the time to be stingy with chakra consumption.

Silver light flashed, and the Konoha ninjas burst out from the gap in the enemy's encirclement that Habara had opened. Combined with the Mercury Lamp's instant killing and hindering power, the Konoha side actually briefly broke contact with the enemy.

Not all twelve of them escaped.

But Habara and the others didn't need to wait for or assist those who didn't escape.

Habara and the others were focused on escaping, so some finger-width "black lines" began to climb up Habara's torso and limbs. Then, lightning began to flow along the predetermined tracks.

"Self-Inflicted Curse Binding Chidori Current," Habara's original (pirated + spliced) Lightning Release ninjutsu body technique. This method of using Lightning Release was designed to both retain the strengthening effect of Lightning Release on the body and suppress chakra consumption to the minimum... However, strictly speaking, this technique was less like Chidori Current and more like an externally powered exoskeleton.

But the enemy couldn't be shaken off so easily. After being delayed for just a moment, they pursued again.

The Konoha ninjas fought as they retreated, their numbers gradually dwindling, and those who were still alive were all injured.

Habara's chakra was also gradually running out. But as he fought, he suddenly noticed something strange... The abnormality was in the enemies' headbands. Originally, they naturally wore Amegakure headbands, but now the Amegakure symbol on the headbands often had a horizontal line through it.

Rogue ninjas?

In other words, the enemies attacking Habara and the others had gradually changed from Amegakure ninjas to "Akatsuki" ninjas.

And at this moment, the Konoha ninjas behind them suddenly stopped.

"The enemy is pursuing us very closely. It's impossible to expect everyone to escape. Habara, we can see your strength. With your abilities, you should be able to protect the captain and Daigo and reach the Konoha camp... We'll stop the enemy." The leading ninja said.

"Kujo..."

For teams like Z Squad, because of their composition, the relationships between members were relatively cold. Apart from Daigo and Izayo, Habara only knew the others by name, so he hadn't expected these people to willingly stay behind to hold off the enemy.

Everyone knew what staying behind meant.

"Rather than being wiped out entirely, it's better to let those who can survive, survive. In Konoha, there aren't many people who are willing to treat us as equals, so... go quickly, before we change our minds."

It could only be said that both sides had true badasses.

Only...

Tough guys meeting their end on the battlefield, whether good or bad, was the "fate" since time immemorial.